Jess

This was an excellent post-apocalyptic novel that handled themes of the separation between church and state, the role of Catholicism worldwide, and both the beauty and danger of knowledge with creativity. While I liked this book immensely, I found some of its nonlinearity and poorly introduced characters to be a bit confusion, which led me to re-read sections to figure it out.

I really enjoyed this book! I found Larsson's writing to be engaging and interesting despite the length of this book, and the complexity of family saga intertwined with white collar crime. I had incredibly low expectations of this book since I hated the title and I hated the cover, but thought I would give it a chance. I'm so glad I did, and will definitely be looking for the rest of the trilogy now.

Mikael and Harriet are particularly likable characters. Erika Berger is still somewhat of an enigma to me, though her situation is quite unique. I'm still on the fence about Lisbeth, who is complicated—to say the least—and sometimes tormented. Her humanness really emerges at the end of the book, though, so I'm curious to see how it'll carry over into the next novel.

Through and through, this is a book I would highly recommend—but only for those with a strong stomach who aren't easily disturbed.